Shows / The Peel with Turner Novak
The Peel with Turner Novak
Exploring the world’s greatest startup stories. Get a behind the scenes look into the founding stories of your favorite companies. Learn how the industries they operate in actually work, and learn playbooks and tactics you can use to launch and scale your own business.
Episodes
The Peel with Turner NovakAydin Senkut: Growing Felicis from $4M to $4B
Aydin Senkut started Felicis 20 years ago with $4 million of his own money. After hearing "we don't back people like you" from every LP, he's now an early…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside the Anthropic Bet That Made Menlo a Top AI Firm | Matt Murphy
Matt Murphy is a partner at Menlo Ventures and led Anthropic's Series D. Before Menlo, Matt sat in Google's board meetings at Kleiner Perkins from the first…
The Peel with Turner NovakOren Zeev's $2.7B Solo GP Playbook
Oren Zeev runs one of the most successful venture firms in the world. The catch: he has no partners, no associates, holds no investment committee, writes no…
The Peel with Turner NovakWhy Stripe’s 1st Employee Bought a Bank | Darragh Buckley, Increase
Darragh Buckley was the first employee at Stripe. He’s since started Increase, the banking infrastructure that moves over $500 billion a year. And he just…
The Peel with Turner NovakWhy a Chemist Left $7B to Bet on Physical AI Before Everyone Else | Bilal Zuberi, Red Glass Ventures
Bilal Zuberi spent 18 years investing hard tech, most of it as a GP at Lux ($7B AUM), before starting @RedGlassVC in 2025 to bet on AI that touches the…
The Peel with Turner NovakFrom Nearly Bankrupt to $5B+ Revenue, with Ring Founder Jamie Siminoff
Jamie Siminoff built the first WiFi video doorbell in his garage, got rejected on Shark Tank, and nearly went bankrupt "at least four times" while growing Ring…
The Peel with Turner NovakHow Gusto Built a $9.5B Company with Co-founder Tomer London
Tomer London is the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Gusto. We go deep on how Gusto builds product, from obsessing over customers to shipping Gusto…
The Peel with Turner NovakBuilding a Venture Firm Like a Product | Jeff Morris Jr, Chapter One
Jeff Morris Jr is the founder and Managing Partner of Chapter One. Previously, he was employee 50 at Tinder and started Chapter One from his desk before…
The Peel with Turner NovakHow Databricks Went $1M to $7B+ ARR in 10 Years | Ron Gabrisko, CRO
Ron Gabrisko might have the best sales seat in software. He joined Databricks as CRO at less than $1M in revenue, and built it into a $7B+ ARR business over…
The Peel with Turner NovakHow Athletes Get Into the Top VC Funds | Ryan Nece, Next Legacy
Ryan Nece runs Next Legacy, a $4 billion fund of funds that connects athletes and philanthropists with the top venture capital firms in the world. Ryan is the…
The Peel with Turner NovakLeaving Sequoia to Bet on Ohio: Why America is the Best Emerging Market | Chris Olsen, Drive Capital
Chris is the Co-Founder and CEO of Drive Capital. Prior to Drive, Chris was a Partner at Sequoia Capital where he helped launch the firm’s first growth fund…
The Peel with Turner NovakBrex’s 1st Employee On Thinking Like a Founder | Michael Tannenbaum, CEO of Figure
Michael Tannenbaum is the CEO of Figure, the blockchain lending company he took public in 2025. He was employee #1 at Brex, and before that ran the mortgage…
The Peel with Turner NovakRe-founding a Company for the AI Era | Shensi Ding, Merge
Shensi Ding is the co-founder and CEO of Merge, the connective infrastructure that plugs into every tool. Merge started in 2020 building integrations, watched…
The Peel with Turner NovakThe 18x Midas Lister Betting $3B on AI (and calling most of it fake) | Navin Chaddha, Mayfield
Navin Chaddha is the Managing Partner at Mayfield. He’s made the Forbes Midas List 18 times, and thinks a lot of the AI revenue everyone's chasing right now is…
The Peel with Turner NovakHealthcare Skipped The Internet And Went Straight To AI | Alamin Uddin, NexHealth
Alamin Uddin is the co-founder and CEO of NexHealth. Today, NexHealth’s healthcare infrastructure serves 89 million patients. But at one point, the company had…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside Solana's Plan to Replace Wall Street | Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana
Anatoly Yakovenko is the co-founder of Solana, the fastest scaled blockchain in the world. We start by talking about how non-US residents were trading SpaceX…
The Peel with Turner NovakThe Hidden Layer Every AI Agent Runs On | Tony Holdstock-Brown, Inngest
Tony Holdstock-Brown is the co-founder and CEO of Inngest, the durable execution platform that quietly powers your favorite AI agents. We get into why agents…
The Peel with Turner NovakRebuilding a $600M Company From Scratch | Peter Rahal, David
Peter Rahal is the Founder and CEO of David. Before David, he built RXBAR in his parents' basement with $10k and sold it to Kellogg for $600M. We get into why…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside Goldman’s $22B Bet on Venture Capital | Hans Swildens, Industry Ventures
Hans Swildens started Industry Ventures in 2000, and this is his first podcast since selling it to Goldman Sachs in 2026. Hans has been buying venture…
The Peel with Turner NovakThe Past, Present, and Future of Pre-Seed | Charles Hudson, Precursor
Charles Hudson started Precursor Ventures in 2015, and helped create pre-seed as a category. Ten years and hundreds of Day 0 checks later, few investors have…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside Elbow Grease, NYC's Hands-On Accelerator | Dan Teran, Gutter Capital
Dan Teran is the co-founder Gutter Capital, a concentrated seed fund in NYC, and Elbow Grease, the accelerator that puts 15 startups in one building and helps…
The Peel with Turner NovakThe AI-Native GTM Playbook | Sam Blond, Monaco
Sam Blond is the Co-founder and CEO of Monaco, the revenue engine for startups. Sam is one of the best sales operators in tech. He spent four years as CRO at…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside the First Quant-Driven VC Fund | Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Chamaeleon
Nuno Goncalves Pedro is the Founder and Managing Partner at Chamaeleon. He won't describe it this way, but I'd call Chamaeleon something like "The RenTech of…
The Peel with Turner Novak15 Hot Takes on VC and AI from the 2026 Allocate Beyond Summit
I just attended Allocate’s Beyond Summit in Deer Valley Utah. It was a peek into what the top VC's and LP’s are thinking about right now. Allocate asked me to…
The Peel with Turner NovakBuilding Got Easy. This Startup Solves What to Build | Alfred Wahlforss, Listen Labs
Alfred Wallforss is the Co-founder of Listen Labs, the AI customer research company. Companies like Microsoft use Listen to run AI-powered customer interviews…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside the AI Sprint, Understanding Anthropic's Strategy | Tomasz Tunguz, Theory Ventures
Tomasz Tunguz is the Founder and General Partner of Theory Ventures. We talk about today’s “all out sprint” in AI, Anthropic’s strategy, the three layers of AI…
The Peel with Turner NovakCursor + Kalshi Seed Investor on Spotting Outlier Talent | Ali Partovi, Neo
Ali Partovi is the Co-founder and CEO of Neo. Neo started in 2017 as a network for the top college students. Neo is a “people-first” investor, a thesis it…
The Peel with Turner NovakHow a Hillbilly in Nevada Bootstrapped a $140M ARR Manufacturing Company | Jim Belosic, SendCutSend
Jim Belosic is the Co-founder and CEO of SendCutSend, a sheet metal manufacturing business he bootstrapped to a $140 million revenue run rate in eight years…
The Peel with Turner NovakThe $5B Venture Growth Buyout Playbook | Alex Israel, Metropolis
Alex Israel is the Co-founder and CEO of Metropolis.He unpacks the unique strategy they used as a tech startup to rollup parking lots and become the largest…
The Peel with Turner NovakHow Agentic AI is Reshaping Science, Education, and the Economy | Karthik Duraisamy at the University of Michigan
Karthik Duraisamy is a professor at the University of Michigan. He is co-leading U of M's newly created Institute of Agentic Computing, the first of its kind…
The Peel with Turner NovakHow US Healthcare Actually Works, the WWII Tax Loophole that Broke it Forever, and How AI Can Fix it | Nikhil Krishnan, Out of Pocket
Nikhil Krishnan is the Founder of Out of Pocket, a media company that makes understanding healthcare more entertaining and accessible. We spend 100 minutes…
The Peel with Turner NovakSophia Amoruso on Bootstrapping Nasty Gal to $120M Revenue, Turning Down $400M, Declaring Bankruptcy, Public Failure, Starting Trust Fund to Back Other Founders
Sophia Amoruso is the Founder of Nasty Gal and Trust Fund, an early stage venture capital firm. We talk through her journey of starting Nasty Gal as an Ebay…
The Peel with Turner NovakFootwork’s Secret Sauce | Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi
Nikhil Basu Trivedi and Mike Smith are the Co-founders of Footwork where they invest up to $15 million in Seed and Series A rounds. This is the first time…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside Hanover Park: Building an AI-Native Service Business, Growing to $15B in Assets
Chris Hladczuk is the Co-founder and CEO of Hanover Park, the AI-native fund administrator, vertically integrating fund administration, portfolio management…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside Canada’s Fastest Growing AI Company | Spellbook, Scott Stevenson
Scott Stevenson is the Co-founder and CEO of Spellbook. Spellbook is an AI copilot for contract review and drafting, essentially “Cursor for lawyers.” They…
The Peel with Turner NovakBenchmark’s Chetan Puttagunta on the Past, Present, & Future of Software
Chetan Puttagunta is a General Partner at Benchmark. We talk about investing in Manus, the AI company that went from zero to $100M ARR in eight months and was…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside Serval: Building the System of Intelligence for IT | Jake Stauch
Jake Stauch is the Co-founder and CEO of Serval. Serval automates IT with AI. We talk taking on incumbents with an AI-native product, why IT departments…
The Peel with Turner NovakGarry Tan on the Past, Present, and Future of YC
Gary Tan is the President and CEO of Y Combinator. YC is the startup accelerator behind companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, Reddit, Twitch, and thousands…
The Peel with Turner NovakBuilding the Wearable That Gets You Stronger | Miranda Nover, Co-founder of Fort Health
Miranda Nover is the Co-founder and CEO of Fort Health. Fort builds wearables that automatically track strength training for people who care about longevity…
The Peel with Turner NovakHow Duo Security went Zero to $1B ARR in Ann Arbor | Dug Song, Jon Oberheide
Dug Song and Jon Oberheide are the co-founders of Duo Security. If you’ve never heard of Duo, it might be one of the most underrated software stories of…
The Peel with Turner NovakBuilding Real-Time Data Streaming for AI | Jacqueline Cheong, Co-founder and CEO of Artie
Jacqueline Cheong is the Co-founder and CEO of Artie. Artie moves data across your systems in real-time, and we talk about why that’s so important in the age…
The Peel with Turner NovakThe State of AI: Rise of Reasoning, Surge in Chinese Open Source, Sovereign AI , How to Invest in AI Today | Nathan Benaich, Air Street Capital
Nathan Benaich is the founder of Air Street Capital and author of the State of AI report. On its eighth year, the report is a year-long effort on the biggest…
- The Peel with Turner Novak
Building the $3B API That Didn’t Exist, Europe’s Regulation Problem | Marcelo Lebre, Co-founder of Remote
Marcelo Lebre is the Co-founder and President of Remote, the payroll and international employment company. Remote is one of today's most underrated software…
The Peel with Turner NovakKevin Hartz | Backing Teen Founders, Lessons from the PayPal Mafia
Kevin Hartz, Co-founder of A*, Eventbrite, Xoom, and Sauron. Kevin has been building and investing in technology companies for 30 years, and we talk about how…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside the All-In Podcast: Lessons from Elon, Trump, Oprah, Travis Kalanick, Investing in 100+ Startups per Year with Jason Calacanis
Jason Calacanis is the host of the All-In Podcast, This Week in Startups, co-founder of the Launch Accelerator, and the “3rd or 4th investor in uber”. We go…
The Peel with Turner NovakWhy the Future of Software is AI and Human Collaboration | Steven Fabre, Co-founder and CEO, Liveblocks
Steven Fabre is the Co-founder and CEO of Liveblocks. Liveblocks builds ready-made AI copilots and collaboration for your product, and Steven is one of my…
The Peel with Turner NovakBuilding Flex, the AI Private Bank with CEO Zaid Rahman
Zaid Rahman is the Co-founder and CEO of Flex. Flex is the AI native private bank for high net worth middle market business owners, headlined by it’s 60-day…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside Eight Sleep | Using AI to Sleep Better | CEO Matteo Franceschetti
Matteo Franceschetti is the Co-founder and CEO of Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep created one of the original breakout consumer health products in 2014, quietly…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside the New Superhuman: $700M ARR, 40M Daily Users with Rahul Vohra
Rahul Vohra is the Founder and CEO of Superhuman Mail. Rahul sold his company to Grammarly in July of 2025, which had just acquired Coda in 2024. Following the…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside Stripe: Stablecoins, AI, and (not) Going Public | Will Gaybrick, President of Technology and Business at Stripe
Will Gaybrick is the President of Technology and Business at Stripe. Stripe builds financial infrastructure for the internet, and if you’ve ever purchased a…
The Peel with Turner NovakRoger Ehrenberg | Investing in Sports, 10x Funds, Traits of Top Founders, Current Seed Stage Market, Investing in Detroit
Roger Ehrenberg is the Co-founder of Game Changers Ventures and IA Ventures. We talk about the current Seed stage venture environment, what he learned…
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Why AI Will Never Replace Engineers, Inside the 996 Discourse, and Creative Marketing | Daksh Gupta, Greptile
Daksh Gupta is the Co-founder and CEO of Greptile, the AI code reviewer that understands your entire code base. Greptile just closed a $25M Series A led by…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside Reducto: YC to Series B in 18 Months, From Pivot to Fortune 10 Customers, Lessons in Founder-Led Sales | Adit Abraham, Co-founder and CEO of Reducto
Sign-up here to get weekly episodes + transcripts in your inbox: https://www.thespl.it/ Adit Abraham is the Co-founder and CEO of Reducto. Reducto’s product…
The Peel with Turner NovakBuilding AI-Native Infrastructure for Developers | Erik Berhnardsson, CEO of Modal
Erik Bernhardsson is the Co-founder and CEO of Modal, building high-performance AI infrastructure. We talk about building what is essentially a new cloud…
The Peel with Turner NovakHowie: The AI Secretary | Austin Petersmith, Co-founder and CEO
Austin Petersmith is the Co-founder and CEO of Howie, the AI secretary. We talk about why AI assistants are so hard to build, why they decided to build Howie…
The Peel with Turner NovakHow Loops Fixes Email for Developers with Co-founder and CEO Chris Frantz
Chris Frantz is the Co-founder and CEO of Loops, the email platform for software companies. We get into why sending emails is still a big problem, his…
The Peel with Turner NovakUntold Startup Lessons from Dozens of Academic Research Papers with Dan Gray at Equidam
Dan Gray is the Head of Insights at Equidam. If you’re a tech and investing nerd like us, you’ll love this conversation. We cover everything Dan’s learned…
The Peel with Turner NovakRethinking Asset Allocation, The Past Present and Future of Venture Capital | Dan Feder, University of Michigan
Dan Feder is a Senior Managing Director of Investments at the University of Michigan’s $18 billion endowment. Our two hour conversation talks through the past…
The Peel with Turner NovakInside Intercom’s AI Turnaround, Why Software Companies Must Train Their Own Models | Eoghan McCabe, Co-founder and CEO
Eoghan McCabe is the Co-founder and CEO of Intercom, building Fin.ai, the AI customer service company. This was an extremely candid, two hour conversation…
The Peel with Turner NovakHow To Generate Alpha in Venture Capital | Albert Azout, Level Ventures
Albert Azout is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Level Ventures, combining first-principles thinking with state-of-the-art data science to back and build…